A collection of drawings, news, travel illustration and animations by Evan Turk.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Obama Inauguration 2013: Potential

"I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that
insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better
awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep
working, to keep fighting."

-President Barack Obama

in his acceptance of the Presidency, 2012

Last week, during a class with Dalvero Academy in Washington DC, we were fortunate enough to witness the rehearsal for President Obama's second inauguration. The capitol disappeared behind a sheet of fog as patriotic music beamed over thousands of empty chairs, waiting for an audience.

I listened from the nearby Bartholdi Garden under the branches of a pomegranate tree, thinking about the idea of potential. Inside this little fruit are dozens of seeds, bursting with potential. Each one could grow into a tree and bear it's own fruit. Today those thousands of chairs were full of people, each full of their own seeds of hope and the potential for unlimited possibilities.

With each new inauguration, there is more than just a change (or continuation) of leadership. There is the birth of thousands of new ideas and possibilities. People can hope for change whether it's now or in 4 years when another president will bring the potential for change.